Secret Service Looking Into Landing Air Force One at Gary

**Matt Molnar** · 02-05-2009, 12:38 AM

Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY) officials say they have been contacted by the Secret Service about the possibility of landing Air Force One there for Presidential visits to Chicago. The problem: the Indiana airport's longest runway is barely 7,000 feet long. The purpose of using Gary would be to minimize delays at ORD caused by an Air Force One arrival.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/1405066,gafone.article

**T-Bird76** · 02-05-2009, 09:04 AM

747s can easily use a runway that's 7000 feet long. The issues would be if runway can handle the weight as well as the taxiways. The taxiways would also have to be wide enough but the length is a non issue. Remember that AF1 is not a run of the mill 747, the engine performance is higher and the plane doesn't carry 400 passengers and cargo which make civil 747s much heavier requiring more runway to takeoff.

**LGA777** · 02-05-2009, 02:53 PM

My first paid airline job was with a small commuter back in 1982 in TPA. Our Twin Otters parked on Gate 69 of the original Airside E. Every day I worked the gates I enjoyed watching the 500pm or so departure next door on Gate 70, a beautiful Pan Am 747-121 to IAD then LHR. The fuel load for the approx 90 min flight to IAD was always light, and this flight averaged 80-150 passengers as most boarded in IAD so the aircraft was always light. It normally departed 36L or 18R (same runway) which is 10,800 feet long and we had a great view of the runway from the third level gates. I probably watched her take off over a 100 times and never recall it using even close to half the runway, with 3000 foot takeoffs being the norm.

AF1 would require a very light fuel load for GYY-ADW so 7000 feet is "plenty' of concrete.

For an Air Force Base the runways at ADW are not that long, 9300 and 9755 feet respectively.

Regards

LGA777

**SmAlbany** · 02-05-2009, 03:12 PM

Airforce 1 landed at ALB with Bill Clinton some years ago. The longest runway was 7200' feet at that time. I don't believe that runway length was an issue.